Stephen Hill, Jeremy Kerley expected to practice at minicamp

Posted by Josh Alper on June 11, 2013, 11:27 AM EDT

AP

In the last few years, Jets coach Rex Ryan has routinely held the most avidly watched press conferences in the AFC East.

That was not the case on Tuesday as Ryan spoke to reporters in New Jersey at roughly the same time that Bill Belichick was addressing the masses in New England about the team’s decision to sign Tim Tebow. A drop in attendance at the presser didn’t mean it was devoid of information about the team however.

Ryan said, via Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com, that he expects to have wide receivers Stephen Hill and Jeremy Kerley back on the field for minicamp practices after they missed time recently with injuries. With Santonio Holmes still recovering from his foot injury and Clyde Gates out with a hamstring injury that should keep him out for minicamp, the Jets were left with an inexperienced receiving corps as they tried to sort out whether Mark Sanchez or Geno Smith will be their starting quarterback.

That’s less than ideal, particularly since Hill needs as much time as possible on the field after his rookie season was marred by both the knee injury, which required surgery, and inconsistency on the field. Holmes has been helping in the effort to get Hill more comfortable with the offense, but the comfort level won’t be worth much if Hill isn’t able to be on the field to put the lessons into action.